Compound exercises are multi-joint exercises that typically work more than one muscle group. Compound exercises are also great for improving your neuromuscular pathways, which are the communication channels between the brain and the muscles. If you’ve ever played the game where you have to pat your head and rub your belly at the same time, then you know how hard you have to work to coordinate your brain and muscles when it comes to performing two actions at once.

Try incorporating one sports-specific compound exercise into each workout to improve coordination. For example, if you are a baseball player, the medicine ball woodchopper exercise will help you improve your bat swing biomechanics.

If you’re crunched for time but you want to squeeze in a full-body workout, pick three of the following exercises and complete three sets of each:

Push-ups - Push-ups work your pecs, triceps, and delts, and engage your shoulder and elbow joints.

Deadlifts – Deadlifts work your entire posterior chain, including your glutes, hamstrings, erector spinae, lats, etc.

Military Press – The military press works your delts and triceps.

Step-Up and Curl – Just like the name of this exercise sounds, this exercise is a mashup of the classic step-up and the dumbbell bicep curl.

Medicine Ball Woodchoppers – This exercise works multiple planes of movement, and transfers power through the core to work both the upper and lower body.

Pull-ups – Pull-ups work your entire upper body, including the lats, pecs, delts, biceps, and triceps.

If you want to keep your heart rate up, incorporate rounds of burpees or jump rope for cardio between sets.